Household
air pollution and cancers other than lung:
a meta-analysisEnvironmenal
Health

Household
air pollution (HAP) from solid fuel
combustion contributes to 2.6% of the
global burden of disease. HAP emissions
are an established lung carcinogen;
however, associations with other cancer
sites have not been fully explored. We
conducted a meta-analysis of 18
casecontrol studies. Using
fixed-effects models, utilizing the
adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95%
confidence intervals (95% CI) from each
study, we evaluated the association
between HAP and cervical neoplasia (663
cases and 1747 controls) and upper
aero-digestive tract cancers (6022 cases
and 15 325 controls). We found that HAP
was associated with cervical neoplasia
...

Defining
the Role of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors in
Early Stage Non-Small Cell Lung
Cancer
Journal of Cancer

Historical,
the non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was
as a united disease entity and the
chemotherapy to the metastatic cancer had
limited results. Recent studies for the
metastatic non-small cell lung cancer led
to the ascertainment that the NSCLC does
not constitute exclusively a disease
entity, but different neoplasms guided
from different molecular paths, different
biological behavior and at extension
requires different confrontation. Thus the
new direction for the therapeutic approach
of NSCLC is henceforth the most
individualized approach based on the
activated molecular paths of tumor.
Distinct subtypes of NSCLC are driven by a
specific genetic alteration, like EGFR,
ALK, ROS1 or BRAF mutations, and these
genetic alterations are sensitized to the
inhibition of specific oncogenic pathways.
The benefit from the use of tyrosine
kinase inhibitors in patients with EGFR
mutations it was confirmed by six
randomized studies of phase III that
investigated the role of gefitinib,
erlotinib and
afatinibr....

Hungary
is a world leader in lung cancer deaths,
so it is of crucial importance that
patients have access to modern treatments.
The aim of our analysis was to explore how
drug treatments are used in Hungary and
how they are compatible with international
practice. The inpatient and prescription
database of the National Health Insurance
Fund Administration of Hungary was used to
study the frequency of certain
chemotherapy protocols and duration of
therapies during a 3-year period
(20082010). During the study period,
12,326 lung cancer patients received
first-line chemotherapy, a third of those
(n=3,791) received second-line treatment,
and a third of the latter (n=1,174)
received third-line
treatment.....

Optical
energy can trigger a variety of
photochemical processes useful for
therapies. Owing to the shallow
penetration of light in tissues, however,
the clinical applications of
light-activated therapies have been
limited. Bioluminescence resonant energy
transfer (BRET) may provide a new way of
inducing photochemical activation. Here,
we show that efficient bioluminescence
energy-induced photodynamic therapy (PDT)
of macroscopic tumors and metastases in
deep tissue. For monolayer cell culture in
vitro incubated with Chlorin e6, BRET
energy of about 1 nJ per cell generated as
strong cytotoxicity as red laser light
irradiation at 2.2 mW/cm2 for 180
s......

Aromatase
inhibitor (ai) therapy has been subjected
to numerous cost-effectiveness analyses.
However, with most ais having reached the
end of patent protection and with
maturation of the clinical trials data, a
re-analysis of ai cost-effectiveness and a
consideration of ai
use....

Going
back to home to die: does it make a difference to
patient survivalBMC
Palliat Care

For
cancer patients, dying in a preferred place is one
of the most important determinants of quality of
life (QOL) [1-4]. Multiple population-based
surveys have indicated that approximately half of
Japanese people would desire home care during
terminal stage cancer [4,5], and a
nationwide bereaved family survey revealed that
among all patients dying of cancer, around 31%
wanted to die at home [1,6-8]. However, the
actual figure of cancer patient home deaths during
the last decade in Japan was less than 10%
[1,7,9]. Thus, the wishes of many Japanese
cancer patients do not appear to be met.The major
difference between hospital care and home-based
palliative care is the involvement of palliative
care specialists....

Active
surveillance (AS) for prostate cancer
(PCa) has become a viable management
strategy for men with low-risk PCa. With
AS being offered more often and more
patients being included in AS studies, the
aim of this paper is to describe AS from a
legal perspective. What might be pitfalls
in the management strategy that urologists
should be aware of? In order to construct
an answer to our research question, a
patient from the Prostate cancer Research
International: Active Surveillance (PRIAS)
study will be used as an example. In the
methods section, first some information on
the PRIAS study is given. Then a PRIAS
case will be described after which the
Dutch legal framework will be
set-out....See
Full Article

In
an adaptive clinical trial (ACT), key
trial characteristics may be altered
during the course of the trial according
to predefined rules in response to
information that accumulates within the
trial itself. In addition to having
distinguishing scientific features,
adaptive trials also may involve ethical
considerations that differ from more
traditional randomized trials. Better
understanding of clinical trial
experts views about the ethical
aspects of adaptive designs could assist
those planning ACTs. Our aim was to
elucidate the opinions of clinical trial
experts regarding their beliefs about
ethical aspects of
ACTs.....See
Full Article